Rapid Micro Methods News

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Saturday, December 19, 2015

OpGen, Inc., a molecular diagnostics and bioinformatics company helping to guide antibiotic therapy and to assist healthcare providers in combatting multi-drug resistant infections, announced today that the American Journal of Clinical Pathology has published a study on the benefits of using the company’s rapid Staphylococcus QuickFISH test at Winter Haven Hospital in Winter Haven, Fla.

The study, entitled “The Impact of Implementation of Rapid QuickFISH Testing for Detection of Coagulase-Negative Staphylococci at a Community-Based Hospital”, demonstrated that when incorporating QuickFISH testing for Staphylococcus into its Antimicrobial Stewardship (AMS) program, the hospital calculated significant annual savings ($764,316) through a 30% reduction in length of stay. The hospital achieved this through use of the test as part of its AMS program that helped it to rapidly differentiate between Coagulase-Negative Staph (CoNS), a normal constituent of human skin, and a potentially life-threatening Staphylococcus aureus infection.

The study was published online on December 10, 2015 and will appear in the January, 2016 print edition of the Journal.

A 90% reduction in time to report pathogen identity (mean of 17.16 hours reduced to a mean of 1.35 hours).

A 30% reduction in length of stay (mean of 4.89 days reduced to mean of 3.44 days).

A 65% decrease in days on vancomycin (mean of 2.52 days to mean of 0.89 days).

Savings from the use of QuickFISH with an antimicrobial stewardship program calculated to be $764,316 using the mean costs per day at a not-for-profit hospital in the state of Florida.

QuickFISH was shown to be fast and easy to perform in a busy microbiology laboratory, requiring only 5 minutes of hands-on time.

“We believe QuickFISH is a significant breakthrough for community hospitals looking to launch effective antimicrobial stewardship programs,” says Kevin Krenitsky, M.D., President of OpGen. “QuickFISH is the only rapid diagnostic on the market that is fast enough to report pathogen identification along with the Gram stain result, which in turn provides impactful, measurable outcomes such as those documented in this study. QuickFISH is a simple and affordable test that can have a meaningful impact on a hospital’s AMS program and overall performance. We are looking forward to sharing these powerful study results as we market our rapid pathogen identification products and systems to hospitals throughout the U.S.”